Despite the amount of information there is about wine these days, the subject still seems to intimidate a lot of people. I've lost track of the number of friends who squirm with embarrassment if asked to express an opinion on a wine. Once you could have put it down to the fact that people in this country weren't brought up with wine on the table. But now?

Supermarkets don't do a lot to help. They still insist on talking about "cellars" and "fine wines". Even Jamie Oliver's new Drinks Tube, designed to make wine more accessible, has a posh girl called Arabella to front the wine chat.

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So if you don't know much about wine, what's the best way to learn? I've suggested it before, but a small book-group-type get-together once a month is a great way to increase your wine-drinking repertoire.

This month, wines to go with strawberries would be a good theme. Include Sauternes, a late harvest sauvignon blanc from Chile, a sweet riesling and a moscato d'Asti like Fontanafredda's delicious grapey Moncucco Moscato d'Asti (5.5% abv; £7.99 for 50cl from Mumbles Fine Wines or £9.25 from Great Western Wine). Oh, and chilled young Beaujolais, which is delicious poured over lightly sugared strawberries.

Discovering sherry would also be a good subject for an impromptu tasting this weekend, given that it's International Sherry Week. Pick contrasting styles such as a manzanilla, a fino, an amontillado, a palo cortado, an oloroso and a PX.

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Sherry was the supermarket category that came out best in the recent International Wine Challenge awards. Most have brilliant-value half or 50cl bottles in their premium ranges but you can buy a whole bottle such as Marks & Spencer's tangy, salty Manzanilla (15% abv) for as little as £6.99.

If you're in a restaurant and there's only two of you, order by the glass and try something new. New wave Spanish reds – like the vivid, spicy El Cometa del Sur Tinto 2013 (14% abv) from Terra Alta – are particularly good value. This blend of grenache, syrah and cariñena, aka carignan, is on offer at £6.79 at Majestic if you buy two.

There's also a great event called the London Wine Sessions, which is raising money for WaterAid, so come along to that and try some different wines. I'm doing a session at noon on 7 June, but if it's sold out by the time you read this, just come up and say hello.